• Young Ju Lee, Cheol Yong Yoon, Min Seung Lee, Byung Do Song, Sang Wook Lee, and Seong Jin Jeong.
• Department of Urology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, South Korea.
• Neuromodulation. 2019 Aug 1; 22 (6): 697-702.

ObjectivesIncomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) accounts for two-thirds of all SCIs in clinical practice. Preclinical research on the effect of sacral neuromodulation (SNM) on bladder function, however, has been focused only on animal models of complete SCI. We aimed to evaluate the effect of early SNM on bladder responses in a rat model of incomplete SCI.Materials And MethodsAltogether, 21 female Sprague-Dawley rats were equally assigned to control (CTR), SCI + sham stimulation (SHAM), and SCI + SNM (SNM) groups. In the SHAM and SNM groups, incomplete SCI was created by producing a moderate contusion with an NYU-MASCIS impactor at the T9-T10 level of the spine, with needle electrodes implanted bilaterally into the S2 or S3 sacral foramen. Only SNM group underwent electrical stimulation for 28 days, beginning on day 7 after SCI. Cystometry was performed 35 days after SCI.ResultsAlthough the interval between voiding contractions was significantly longer in the SHAM group than the CTR group (25.5 ± 1.4 vs. 12.5 ± 1.7 min; p < 0.05), there were no significant differences between the SNM group (16.5 ± 1.5 min) and the CTR group. Maximum voiding contraction pressure did not differ among the groups. The SNM group had a significantly lower frequency (3.5 ± 0.5 vs. 14.6 ± 2.0; p < 0.05) and maximum pressure (11.4 ± 6.2 vs. 21.3 ± 1.8 cmH2 O; p < 0.05) of nonvoiding contractions than the SHAM group.ConclusionsOur results provide experimental evidence that early SNM treatment may prevent or diminish bladder dysfunctions (e.g., detrusor overactivity, abnormal micturition reflex) in a clinical condition of incomplete SCI.© 2018 International Neuromodulation Society.

28 keywords...

hide…